The moment he finished speaking.
At the other end of the hallway.
The old woman suddenly dropped to her knees.
Her forehead slammed hard against the wooden floor.
"My lord!"
"She can't know yet!"
The man didn't turn around.
He merely said, calmly,
"You."
"You talk too much."
The next second.
The old woman's entire body began to tremble violently.
As if countless invisible forces were pressing down on her at once.
Bang!
One of her arms.
Exploded directly into a cloud of blood mist.
"Aah—!"
The old woman let out a shrill, agonized scream.
Yet she remained on her knees.
She didn't even dare lift her head.
Su Nian's pupils contracted.
This wasn't combat.
It wasn't even an ability.
It was more like a single sentence...
could decide whether someone lived or died.
Just then.
The man suddenly looked at Su Nian again.
For the first time.
He revealed a genuine smile.
"The next scenario."
"Don't die."
"I'll be waiting for you."
With that.
His figure began to fade slowly.
As if merging into the darkness.
Just as he was about to disappear completely.
Su Nian's Mind's Eye suddenly began vibrating violently.
An image rushed into her mind without warning.
She saw—
A blood-red sky without end.
Beneath the sky.
Countless figures stood.
People.
Ghosts.
Monsters.
All of them were kneeling toward the same direction.
And at the highest point.
On a pitch-black throne.
Sat a blurry figure.
Those pale golden eyes.
Slowly opened.
At the same time.
A cold, calm voice rang out deep within her consciousness.
"Remember my name."
"Gu Shen."
Boom—
The image shattered instantly.
Su Nian abruptly came back to herself.
The hallway had returned to normal.
The dead spirit was gone.
The guest was gone.
The old woman was gone too.
It was as if everything that had just happened had been nothing but an illusion.
Only the Night Watchman's wooden token in her palm remained.
At this moment.
A black chess piece had appeared on it.
And at the very top of the System panel, a line of gray text she had never seen before had silently appeared.
Unknown Causality established.
Number: 001.
Cannot be deleted.
Su Nian stared at that line, and for the first time, a thought rose in her heart.
This man called Gu Shen.
From the very beginning.
He didn't seem to have appeared before her by chance.
He had been...
waiting for her.
Su Nian stood in the middle of the hallway.
The black chess piece in her palm was icy cold.
She could feel that this chess piece wasn't an item.
It was more like a... mark.
The System offered no explanation.
The Night Watchman's wooden token showed no reaction either.
Only that line of gray text remained at the very top of the panel.
Unknown Causality: 001 (Cannot be deleted)
Just then.
"Clack."
A crisp abacus sound suddenly came from the first floor of the inn.
All the oil lamps returned to their dim yellow glow.
As if nothing had happened at all.
Immediately afterward, the System sounded again.
【The First Night anomaly has ended.】
【Remaining time on the First Night: 00:41:23】
【Please return to your room.】
【You may not leave your room again before dawn.】
This time.
The rules had changed.
Su Nian frowned.
When they had first checked in, the only rule had been that they couldn't leave the inn.
Now it had become—
They couldn't leave their rooms.
The rules... could actually change.
As she was thinking.
The door to Room 206 suddenly opened.
The girl with glasses poked her head out and asked in a small voice,
"Su Nian... did those things just now... all leave?"
Su Nian nodded.
"Get back to your room first."
"Remember."
"Don't open the door for any voice."
"Even if it's me, don't open it."
The girl with glasses froze.
"But what if it really is you...?"
Su Nian cut her off.
"If it's me."
"I'll wait until dawn."
One sentence.
It made everyone understand instantly.
From now on.
No one could be trusted.
The four survivors returned to their respective rooms.
Su Nian walked into Room 203.
The moment the door closed.
Click.
The lock actually engaged by itself.
The next second.
The entire room suddenly fell silent.
So silent she could hear even her own heartbeat.
The room wasn't large.
An old wooden bed.
A table.
A chair.
A mirror.
Other than that, there was no furniture.
The first thing Su Nian looked at wasn't the bed.
It was the mirror.
She slowly approached it.
Her reflection looked completely normal.
Just as she was about to leave.
The reflection in the mirror.
Suddenly lagged half a beat behind.
Su Nian had already turned around in reality.
But her reflection was still standing there.
Su Nian stopped walking.
She didn't turn her head.
But her reflection slowly smiled.
The corners of its mouth split open, little by little.
"Night Watchman..."
It spoke.
"You finally came."
Su Nian spun around.
The mirror had returned to normal.
There was only her reflection inside.
As if nothing had happened.
But the Night Watchman's wooden token began to heat up.
Another line of gray text appeared.
Mind's Eye triggered.
The mirror cannot be trusted.
Su Nian immediately picked up the white cloth on the table.
She covered the entire mirror with it.
The instant it was covered.
From behind the mirror.
Came the sound of fingernails scraping across glass.
Scrape—
Scrape—
Scrape—
As if someone were trapped inside the mirror.
Trying to get out.
Su Nian ignored it.
She began checking the entire room.
Soon.
She found a wooden box beneath the bed.
The box wasn't locked.
With a gentle push.
It opened.
Inside was only a yellowed diary.
Three words were written on the cover.
The Night Watchman's Record.
Su Nian's pupils contracted.
Something left behind by the Night Watchman?
She opened to the first page.
The handwriting was powerful and vigorous.
It didn't look like a woman's handwriting.
It seemed more like the writing of an old man.
The very first sentence made her whole body shudder.
"If you're reading this book, it means the previous Night Watchman is already dead."
She continued reading.
"Don't trust the System."
"Don't trust the scenarios."
"And don't trust your own eyes."
Su Nian's breathing quickened slightly.
Another one.
Don't trust.
What, exactly...
could she still trust?
She quickly flipped to the second page.
The entire page contained only one sentence.
"The rules aren't here to protect the players."
"The rules are here to protect 'it.'"
The instant Su Nian read those words.
Outside the room.
A familiar knocking sound suddenly rang out.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
"Su Nian."
It was the girl with glasses's voice.
"Please, save me..."
"There's something in Room 206..."
"Please open the door..."
Su Nian didn't move.
She simply stared at the door.
Because she remembered clearly.
Just now.
The girl with glasses's room.
Was Room 206.
And Su Nian's room...
Had two whole rooms between it and Room 206.
If she had really run into danger.
The first door she knocked on...
absolutely wouldn't be Su Nian's.
Thinking this.
Su Nian slowly took a step backward.
She didn't make a sound.
Outside the door.
There was silence for several seconds.
Then.
The voice that had originally belonged to the girl with glasses suddenly laughed.
The laughter grew sharper.
More grating.
Until finally.
It completely transformed into a man's deep, hoarse voice.
"So..."
"You really..."
"are starting to wake up."
The area outside the door fell silent.
There were no footsteps.
No knocking.
Only those words continued echoing through the room.
"You really... are starting to wake up."
Su Nian didn't answer.
She even deliberately slowed her breathing.
She still hadn't finished reading the first page of The Night Watchman's Record.
She lowered her head again.
Beneath the lines of text from just now, there was another passage covered by bloodstains.
She gently wiped away the dried blood with her sleeve.
A line of ancient writing slowly emerged.
"If you hear your own name, don't answer."
"If you see another you, don't trust it."
"If you encounter the one with golden eyes... don't make a deal with him."
Su Nian's pupils contracted slightly.
The one with golden eyes.
Gu Shen.
The Night Watchman's Record had documented his existence long ago.
She immediately flipped to the next page.
But the second page held only a large patch of charred burn marks.
It looked as if someone had deliberately burned away the most important content.
Only half of a sentence remained.
"...when the five thoughts become one, the door will..."
Everything after that was gone.
Just as she was about to continue reading.
The wooden token heated up again.
The System suddenly displayed a new prompt.
【Special item discovered: The Night Watchman's Record.】
【Hidden mission unlocked.】
【Mission: Find the Night Watchmen of the Past.】
【Current progress: 1/9.】
【Reward: Unknown.】
Nine?
Su Nian silently committed that number to memory.
That meant that before her.
There had been at least eight Night Watchmen.
And...
They had all failed.
Suddenly.
"Beep."
A sharp pain came from the back of her hand.
She looked down.
At some point, the black chess piece had transformed into a strand of black lines and merged into the back of her right hand.
It formed an extremely faint mark.
Like an incomplete chessboard.
Su Nian immediately opened the System.
But she found that next to the original "Unknown Causality 001," a new description had appeared.
Causality has taken up residence.
Cannot be removed.
Current status: Dormant.
She tried wiping it with her hand.
It had no effect.
Just then.
The entire room suddenly grew colder.
It wasn't ordinary cold.
It was a kind of...
cold that felt like life itself was draining away.
In the corner of the room.
A drop of water.
Slowly fell.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Su Nian frowned.
There was no leak in this room...
She followed the sound with her eyes.
Beneath the bed.
Black liquid had begun seeping out at some point.
More and more of it flowed out.
It gave off a strong smell of rust.
Like blood.
But thicker than blood.
The next second!
A small, deathly pale hand.
Slowly reached out from beneath the bed.
Then...
A second.
A third.
Finally.
A little girl's head slowly poked out.
It was the girl in red Su Nian had encountered upstairs.
Only now.
She was soaked from head to toe.
Black liquid dripped constantly from her hair.
She was still clutching that battered cloth doll.
She wasn't smiling.
She looked utterly miserable.
She only stared quietly at Su Nian.
After a long while.
She suddenly said softly,
"Big sister."
"You took The Night Watchman's Record?"
Su Nian didn't answer.
But the girl slowly crawled out.
Strangely.
She didn't seem hostile.
Instead, she carefully placed the cloth doll on the floor.
Then, from inside the doll's stomach.
She took out a rusty brass key.
And held it out to Su Nian.
"This..."
"The big brother from before... told me to give it to the next Night Watchman."
Su Nian didn't accept it immediately.
"The big brother from before?"
The girl nodded lightly.
"His surname was Lin."
"Everyone called him..."
"Lin the Night Watchman."
"But."
The girl's eyes suddenly reddened.
Her voice became choked with tears.
"He's dead."
"He died on the third floor."
The third floor!
Su Nian's expression shifted.
This inn clearly didn't have a third floor...